# guinea

Pronunciation: say "GIN-ee" /ˈɡɪni/

## Proper noun · Guinea

1. A country in West Africa whose official name is the Republic of Guinea.
   - Simple: A country in West Africa. Its full name is the Republic of Guinea.
   - _The mining company signed a new agreement with the government of Guinea._
   - _Guinea shares a border with both Sierra Leone and Liberia._
4. The coastal region of West Africa stretching between Morocco and the Congo, especially the northern shore of the Gulf of Guinea.
   - Simple: The coast of West Africa between Morocco and the Congo, as people named it in the past.
   - _Portuguese ships worked their way down the coast of Guinea in search of gold and trade._
   - _On eighteenth-century maps, Guinea stretches along the shore of the great gulf that still bears its name._

## Noun

2. A British gold coin first worth twenty shillings, later fixed at twenty-one shillings from 1717 until decimal currency was adopted. *(British)*
   - Simple: An old British gold coin, first worth twenty shillings and later worth twenty-one.
   - _The doctor charged a guinea for each visit, a fee only wealthy families could pay._
   - _Collectors pay high prices for guineas struck in the reign of Charles II._
3. A bird known as the guinea fowl, which is found in West Africa and kept as poultry.
   - Simple: A bird called a guinea fowl, found in West Africa and kept on farms.
   - _The guineas set up a loud racket whenever a stranger drove into the farmyard._
   - _She keeps a guinea or two with the chickens to keep the ticks down._
5. An offensive ethnic slur, used in the US, for a person of Italian descent. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: A very rude and hurtful word, used in the US, for a person whose family came from Italy.

## Origin

**Meanings 2–3, 5** — From Guinea, the early modern name for West Africa: the coins were originally made of gold from the region, mostly from the Gold Coast (modern Ghana), and used for African trade, and the guinea fowl was found there. Its use as an ethnic slur against Italians may be due to their darker complexion compared with people of Anglo-American descent.
**Meanings 1, 4** — From Portuguese Guiné, the name for this part of the West African coast, whose further origin is uncertain.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/guinea (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).